My experience with GCM

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

You may read and post, but some features are restricted to registered members. Please consider registering to gain full access! Registration is free and only takes a few moments to complete.

[plaidcymru]

After reading much about GCM and other peoples experiences among these forums,I have mixed emotions. I dont think all of the GCM fellowships can all be lumped together. They are different in different places. I had some good experiences,and some not so good. I first came into contact with a GCM fellowship in Lubbock,TX in 1989 and it was an outstanding experience. I felt loved and cared for. People were genuinely interested in my life and included me in everything. I never felt pressured to do anything that I did not want or even come close to thinking that there was abuse or any cult like tendencies in this fellowship. They were orthodox and the people were really great folks. I moved away to College Station,Texas in the early 90's and got involved with the GCM church there. This was not such a great experience. But not for the reasons that most people in these forums say. Rather than feeling welcomed and pursued by the people and the leadership of this GCM fellowship,I felt largely ignored. They did not make much of an effort to know me or to learn a great deal about me. They did not seem to recognize that I was a troubled young man and that I was starving for love,acceptance,fellowship,friends,ministry,etc. If I came...fine...if I didnt...fine. It didnt make one bit of difference to them one way or the other. No one really made any attempts to get involved in my life. Looking back,I think there was a little bit of favortism,elitism and exclusivity with this fellowship. They were more of a student fellowship,unlike the Lubbock church which was more of a community fellowship. They seemed to have more respect for and desire to minister more only to Aggies(students of Texas A&M University who were highly intelligent and were either "educated" or getting educated. The leadership were A&M graduates. I was just a guy who blew in from out of town with no good reason and I wasnt going to school. I was just working a full time minimum wage job. I just dont think that I fit in to what they wanted. This all happened from the summer of 1992 to the summer of 1993. Disillusioned,I next went to Columbia,Missouri only because it had a GCM fellowship and one of the pastors was nice to me and encouraged me to come up there in the summer of 1993. I was stupid. This was all done over the phone. When I got up there,they did welcome me and they were more like the Lubbock church...friendly,interested,involved,etc. But looking back,I can say that it was the only GCM fellowship that I did attend that was probably a little over authoritative and controlling. But it was a disaster. I stayed less than a year and never was happy living up there. The GCM people up there tried to reach me,but I just remained flat spiritually. In time,they slowly started to withdraw and towards the end of my time there,kind of hinted that they were tired of dealing with me and that maybe it was time for me to move on to another fellowship. In 1994,I returned to Lubbock and immediately went back to the GCM church there that I had had such a great experience with in 1989. But disaster had struck there in the years while I had been gone. One of the pastors had had a moral failure and had resigned. It destroyed that church. They were a skeleton of what they had been in 1989. Most of the people had moved away or had gone to other churches. The outreach,love,fellowship,friendships that were true of it in 1989 was gone. It had become just like every other church in town. The uniqueness was gone. And the people who were still there that had been there in 1989 never would level with me about what had really happened. I left in disillusionment. I stayed in Lubbock until 2007 and just did not attend church anywhere. In 2007,I moved back to College Station,not because of the GCM church,but because there was a job at Texas A&M University that I could do and they were hiring. When I checked on the internet to see about the state of the GCM fellowship in College Station,I found that they had grown quite a bit and have a lot of things going on. But the same pastors and leaders that were there in 1992 are still there. Remembering my experience back then,I just could not bring myself to go back. It is now 2011 and I have never attended church anywhere since I have been living back in College Station. I sometimes think about at least trying out the GCM fellowship here again,but I hesitate and either think maybe I should go somewhere else or just not go at all. Anyway,that is my experience with GCM.

[EverAStudent]

Greetings and welcome to the forum!

You are right, of course, even in the late 70's and early 80's the various assemblies were not truly identical.  But back then the national oversight was much more domineering and kept the elders in line in practice and in doctrine with something of an iron hand.  Since McCotter's departure no one has quite had the personal power base to be quite that powerful (IMHO).

If you will permit me to encourage you to keep searching for a good, if not traditional, church.  It is important to your growth to stay connected with other Christians, not to mention the encouragement and fellowship that come with a well-adjusted church. 

Welcome.

[plaidcymru]

I think that you may be right. There is non-denominational church in town that has been here for several decades that has an excellent reputation. It is an independent Bible church. It has a balanced community and college outreach and it maintains a plurality of elders and deacons. The pastor/teachers are seminary graduates...most having come out of the well known and respected Dallas Theological Seminary. I believe in the plurality of elder system. I was raised in baptist churches with their congregational system and it presents all kinds of problems. If the pastor rubs the congregation the wrong way,they just fire him. The deacon board often has total control in the church and that is not biblical. Marginal and carnal members have votes. But Im not opposed to seminary training. One of the reasons there has been doctrinal aberration and abuses in GCM is because of the lack of seminary training.